Hey clubs, bars, and venues of Long Beach and Orange County! We need to talk...

Hey guys!

You are all awesome and provide wonderful spaces for the rich musical talent we have in this area. In the short time that I've had this site, I've learned so much about how many great venues there are and the great bands you host.

But I gotta be honest... Trying to keep up with what's going on when is a challenge. See, I mainly started this site because I couldn't find a one-stop place for all gigs in the area (and that was also easy to use and browse), I figured, hey, I'll periodically go around to the various venue sites, enter them here, and have one place for listings that maybe other people would find useful, too. Well, turns out, just getting data easily from your various websites is a pain in the rump!

So I'd like to offer the following tips to you, our beloved music venues of Long Beach and Orange County:

• Don't hide your event information in a graphic (or Flash)!

  Putting your event info as text embedded in a graphic means that search engines can not scan and index your content. Also maintenance becomes harder if you have to fix errors in the graphic and user can't cut and paste info to share or use on their sites (thus, hampering viral marketing.) Basically, don't put up roadblocks that will end up frustrate and limit the user's experience.

  Making digital "flyers" (images) for your show is a fun and can give the potential patrons a good sense of vibe of the show and bands playing, but OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE like a text-based calendar on your site. diPiazza's has a good model of having flyers on their main page, but ALSO a text-based calendar that is easy to browse. Graphics for the shows can add for a richer experience, but don't let that take precedence over utilitarian functions and usability.

• Use a calendaring system.

  Many content management systems (like the one I'm using for this site, Drupal) have calendaring capabilities. Use them! At the very least, use Myspace's events tools. I'm not a big fan of Myspace's event thang, because, like everything else on Myspace, the content is not extensible or shareable, a "walled-garden" of sorts, but it's better than nothing.

  Another quick and dirty way to offer data is to use Google Calendars and make the calendar public. This is exactly what Viento Y Aqua does. This is great for me, because since I can grab and iCal feed from Google Cal, I can semi-automate the their listings here on my site, and this is one more place where their data is accessible, one more place where potential patrons can become aware of their shows.

• Submit your event to massive event sites like Upcoming.yahoo.com.

  You are a business and are interested in marketing in a smart and economical way, right? Use those free tools that are available! Upcoming.yahoo.com is a great example and my favorite events site. They are THE model for how to handle events on the web. Not only being a very usable and searchable site, they take advantage of microformats, multiple options for browsing and viewing data (by show, area, venue, etc), as well as multiple options for subscribing to feeds, such as by venue, by location, by event type, OR by format such as RSS or iCal. Simply incredible. In fact, they are SO good, there should be NO need for LongBeachGigs.com.

  Make your event listings as available as far and wide as possible. Site like Upcoming have AWESOME SEO and the easier people can find out about your venue and events, isn't that better for your business?

  Alex's Bar is the shining example of how it should be done. Their info is EVERYwhere. All over Upcoming and other event aggregating sites.

• Offer RSS and iCal-formatted feeds of your listings from your site.

  Offer your data in as many device-independent ways as possible. Offer RSS and iCal feeds of your calendar listings, alongside your news/blog.

Well, I hope this makes sense. Feel free to comment with your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you. If you are a venue and need help with your web presence, I can potentially lend a hand.

Thanks for listening...